Family Olympiad

The weather in southern Utah this month has been spectacular.  Day after day it has been 45 to 55 F with clear, blue skies and bright sunshine.  It would be great if I weren't worried about the snow-pack.  I'm sure the alpine skiing is terrible, and it's not much better in the back-country.  But, just for something to do, I went up to our ski meadow along Center Creek and put in a couple of tracks.  The snow is thin and sugary in the shade, thin and hard in the sun, and generally not very forgiving.  In any case, I put in a cross-country track and a downhill track.  Then, I invited Valerie up for a race.

We went up today and made two laps each in both events.  V was first on the leader-board with a cross-country time of 4:04.  I'd skied it yesterday in about that same time, so I figured we'd be close.  Well.  The snow was a little faster today (either that, or I rose to the competition).  I made it around the track in 3:06.  V stepped up to meet the challenge, hoping to knock me out of the top spot.  Unfortunately, she went out too fast and crashed on the first corner.  She posted another 4:04, (so it makes me wonder what she could have done without the crash).  I had the gold medal wrapped up as long as I wasn't DQed, so I skied without any pressure.  My second lap clocked at 2:57.  Wow.  I'd broken the 3 minute mile and set a new course record.  The crowd was going wild.

It was on to the downhill competition.  For the first lap, we both clocked 15 seconds.  Can you have an Olympic tie?  For my second lap, I adopted a technique that Valerie had been using—a couple of strong pole pushes on the flat right before the finish line—and cut a second off my time.  I scored a 14.  She, for whatever reason, was one second slower on her second lap, and came in at 16 seconds.  It was close, but I'd earned my second gold medal of the day.  Fortunately, Valerie didn't seem bitter about my big winning streak.  In fact, she mentioned that she might drive up to the track herself when I'm busy.  Oh-Oh, it sounds like she might be about to start practicing.